Graham Eatough and Stephen Sutcliffe – The Enderby Project
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The Enderby Project
By Graham Eatough and Stephen Sutcliffe
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
This new collaboration between artist Stephen Sutcliffe and director Graham Eatough is a film work in two
parts inspired by Anthony Burgess’ series of Enderby novels. Exploring the cultural figure of the artist and
ideas of authenticity and posterity through theatrical performances and irreverent humour, the two films will
adapt the very first and last chapters of the four novel series.
– Inside Mr Enderby
Inside Mr Enderby tells the story of a school trip run by ‘Educational Time Travel’ from an unspecified future,
back in time to visit the fictional poet Enderby one New Year’s Eve in the 1960’s. The chapter juxtaposes the
destitute conditions of Enderby’s squalid bedsit and his all too human behaviour as a struggling poet living in
obscurity, with the veneration and microscopic attention paid to his life and work long after his death.
With darkly comic characterisation of the poet, the schoolteacher and his half-interested pupils, this chapter is
a brilliant study of the stark reality of a living, struggling artist compared to the stale posterity of the set-text
poet.
– The Muse
This chapter, which can be seen as an epilogue to the whole Enderby story, follows Paley, a young literary
historian, as he seeks to answer the burning question in his field of study and find out if and how Shakespeare
wrote all the plays attributed to him. Technological advances have allowed Paley to attempt this, not through
time travel, but by travelling through space to one of an infinite number of parallel universes, to a planet at
exactly the same stage of development as earth in Elizabethan times.
However, despite Paley’s meticulous preparations in learning Shakespearean English, and his authentic 16th
century dress, attempting this kind of visit is fraught with danger, not least in its psychological effects. Driven
mad by the grotesque apparitions he encounters due to the anomalies within the parallel universe, he is
Graham Eatough and Stephen Sutcliffe – The Enderby Project
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carried away to Bedlam. In a final twist Paley inadvertently gives Shakespeare the very plays that he’d come to
check the veracity of, by leaving behind the manuscripts he’s brought with him from the future and possibly
becoming the muse of the chapter’s title.
– Inspiration
The Enderby Project will draw together Stephen Sutcliffe’s interests in British literary and popular culture of the
1960’s and 70’s and his preoccupation with the self-doubt of the artist, with Graham Eatough’s ongoing
exploration of theatricality in the creation of meaning in contemporary culture. Their collaboration will develop
both artists’ interdisciplinary experiences in visual art, theatre and film.
The two films will reference cultural forms drawn from a similar period of key interest to both artists such as the
BBC’s Play for Today, the Royal Shakespeare Company Masterclass series, the BBC’s Complete
Shakespeare series, and the rudimentary sci-fi aesthetics of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Blake 7.
For Inside Mr Enderby the artists hope to use the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester as a filming location.
As well as making a connection with the city of Burgess’ birth, the futuristic exterior of the theatre will provide
an ideal point of embarkation for the time-travelling students and its interior the stage on which we will set
Enderby’s bedsit. We are hoping to work with Shakespeare’s Globe in London as both a location for the
Shoreditch theatre featured in the The Muse chapter.
ARTISTS’ BIOS
Stephen Sutcliffe (b.1968, Harrogate) lives and works in Glasgow. Recent solo exhibitions include Tramway,
Glasgow (2013) Rob Tufnell, London (2012), Stills, Edinburgh (2011), Whitechapel Auditorium (2010), Cubitt,
London (2009), Galerie Micky Schubert, Berlin (2008) and Art Now, Light Box, Tate Britain (2005). Group
exhibitions include: Freize Projects, 'Project 35', Independent Curators International, touring to various venues
in the United States (2010), 'The Associates', Dundee Contemporary Arts (2009) and 'Nought to Sixty' and
'Talk Show' at the ICA, London (2008 and 2009 respectively). In 2009 he was shortlisted for Derek Jarman
Award (which he has been shortlisted for again in 2014) and in 2012 he won the Margaret Tait Award. In
October 2013 his video ‘Outwork’ was part of Experimenta (the artists moving image screening program) at the
London Film Festival. He has just completed a residency at BBC Scotland.
Graham Eatough is a Glasgow based theatre director who also works in visual art and film. Between 1992
and 2009 Graham was Artistic Director of Suspect Culture theatre company for whom he directed and
occasionally performed in, eighteen productions presented in venues and festivals around the world. Graham
has also directed work for 7:84, Tron Theatre Glasgow and National Theatre of Scotland as well as performing
in theatre, film and television. Graham’s recent work has included collaborations with artist Graham Fagen,
The Making of Us (Glasgow International, National Theatre of Scotland, Edinburgh International Film Festival)
and In Camera (La Friche, Marseille). Currently he is one of five collaborators from Europe and Australia on
the Nomanslanding project, a performance installation for Sydney Harbour, the river Clyde and the Ruhr in
2015. In the theatre Graham’s production of HeLa by Adura Onashile won Best Scottish Show at the
Edinburgh Festival 2013 before its world tour in 2014, and he is about to direct a new production of Alasdair
Gray’s novel Lanark at the Edinburgh International Festival.
PRODUCTION / DISTRIBUTION
LUX is the UK agency for the support and promotion of artists' working with the moving image. Founded in
2002 as a not-for-profit company and charity it builds on the legacy of its predecessor organisations The Lux
Centre, The London Filmmakers Co-operative and London Video Arts with a history stretching back to the
1966. In addition to organising exhibitions, touring, publishing and education LUX represents Europe's largest
collection of moving image works produced by visual artists. LUX has commissioned and produced many
award-winning artists' moving image works by amongst others; Matt Collishaw, Tracey Emin, Aurélien
Froment, Yang Fudong, Jacki Irvine, Amar Kanwar, Miranda July, Mark Leckey, Deimantas Narkevičius,
Rosalind Nashashibi, Laure Prouvost Catherine Sullivan, Mika Taanila, Mark Wallinger, Gillian Wearing,
Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Akram Zaatari.